Astrophysics News

June 13, 2026

Top Headlines

AI Could Uncover New Physics Faster but There’s a Surprising Catch

June 11, 2026 Scientists found that transfer learning can make the search for new physics in the universe much faster, slashing the need for expensive simulations. Yet the approach can backfire when AI relies too heavily on familiar patterns, potentially missing ...

MIT’s New Spacecraft Engine Could Send Tiny Satellites to Mars

June 10, 2026 MIT researchers have shown that one fuel can power both chemical and electric spacecraft thrusters, potentially transforming what small satellites can do. The approach combines quick bursts of speed with highly efficient long-range propulsion in a ...

NASA Just Proved Spacecraft Can Switch Between Multiple Satellite Networks

June 6, 2026 NASA’s PExT terminal has shown that spacecraft can seamlessly communicate through multiple government and commercial networks, a major step beyond traditional single-network systems. The mission is now expanding to test new capabilities that could ...

Hidden Supermassive Black Hole Pairs May Finally Have a Visible Signal

June 5, 2026 Scientists have proposed a new method for finding tightly bound supermassive black hole pairs by searching for stars that flash repeatedly as their light is magnified by the black holes’ gravity. The timing and brightness of these bursts could ...

NASA’s Powerful Roman Space Telescope Is About to Transform Astronomy

May 18, 2026 NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now aiming for an earlier launch in September 2026. Designed to explore dark matter, dark energy, and distant exoplanets, the telescope will capture massive, ultra-detailed surveys of the cosmos using ...

NASA’s New AI Space Chip Could Let Spacecraft Think for Themselves

May 15, 2026 NASA is testing a next-generation space computer chip that could give spacecraft the ability to operate far more independently in deep space. The radiation-hardened processor is showing performance levels hundreds of times beyond current spaceflight ...

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Could Reveal Millions of Invisible Neutron Stars

May 15, 2026 NASA’s Roman Space Telescope could expose a vast hidden population of neutron stars lurking unseen across the Milky Way. By detecting subtle shifts in starlight caused by gravity, the mission may ...

James Webb Telescope Reveals the Clearest Map Ever of the Universe’s Cosmic Web

May 12, 2026 Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have created the clearest map yet of the universe’s “cosmic web” — the enormous hidden structure that connects galaxies across space. By ...

NASA’s Psyche Probe Is About to Slingshot Around Mars at 12,000 Mph

May 11, 2026 NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is about to pull off a dramatic close flyby of Mars, skimming just 2,800 miles above the planet to get a powerful gravitational boost on its journey to the mysterious metal-rich asteroid Psyche. The maneuver will save ...

NASA Just Tested a Powerful New Thruster That Could Send Humans to Mars

May 6, 2026 A powerful new electromagnetic thruster has taken a major step forward after a successful high-energy test at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Fueled by lithium vapor and driven by intense magnetic forces, the experimental engine reached ...

NASA Shuts Down 49-year-old Voyager 1 Instrument to Keep It Alive

May 4, 2026 Voyager 1 just powered down a nearly 50-year-old instrument to stay alive in deep space. The spacecraft is running critically low on energy, forcing NASA to make careful sacrifices to keep its mission going. Despite the shutdown, it continues to ...

Powerful AI Finds 100+ Hidden Planets in NASA Data Including Rare and Extreme Worlds

May 3, 2026 Astronomers have unleashed a powerful new AI tool called RAVEN to comb through data from NASA’s TESS mission—and it’s paying off in a big way. By analyzing millions of stars, the system has ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:51am EDT

Alien Planet Spins Revealed a Hidden Clue to How Worlds Form

June 13, 2026 Using the Keck Observatory, astronomers measured the spins of dozens of giant planets and brown dwarfs orbiting distant stars. They found that giant planets can spin faster than much more massive ...

Dark Energy Survives Major Challenge as Universe Keeps Accelerating

June 13, 2026 A bold claim that the universe’s accelerating expansion was an illusion has been put to the test—and failed. Researchers found that the study behind the controversy made key mistakes when ...

NASA Reveals Artemis III Crew for One of the Most Complex Space Missions Ever

June 11, 2026 NASA has selected the Artemis III crew for a high-stakes 2027 mission designed to test the future of lunar exploration. Astronauts will launch aboard ...

James Webb Reveals Two Completely Different Twilights on an Alien World

June 11, 2026 JWST has revealed dramatic differences between the dawn and dusk regions of the scorching exoplanet WASP-121 b. Fierce winds appear to carry heat from the planet’s permanent dayside, making the ...

Scientists Think They Solved the Mystery of the Amaterasu Particle

June 9, 2026 The mysterious Amaterasu particle may not be a proton at all. New research suggests that some of the most extreme cosmic rays could be ultraheavy atomic nuclei, heavier than iron, which are better ...

Planet Nine Mystery Deepens as New Discovery Challenges Hidden Planet Theory

June 8, 2026 Astronomers have spent years searching for a possible hidden giant planet far beyond Neptune. Unusual orbits among distant Kuiper Belt objects have ...

What Is Space-Time? A Mystery at the Heart of Reality

June 8, 2026 What if our biggest idea about reality is built on a hidden misunderstanding? A new philosophical look at space-time challenges the popular view that the past, present, and future all exist together ...

Magnetic Fields May Be the Secret Behind Binary Star Formation

June 5, 2026 Scientists have uncovered a surprising force that may help explain how binary star systems form so quickly. New supercomputer simulations show that magnetic fields surrounding newborn stars can act ...

NASA's Webb Detects Methane and Strange Chemistry on Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

June 4, 2026 NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has uncovered unusual chemistry in interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, including the first direct detection of methane on ...

Venus Will Disappear Behind the Moon in a Rare June Sky Event

June 3, 2026 June's night sky delivers several must-see events, starting with a close encounter between Venus and Jupiter after sunset. Mercury joins the pair to form a rare three-planet lineup, while the Moon ...

A Stellar “Rosetta Stone” Reveals the Source of Mysterious Cosmic Signals

June 2, 2026 Astronomers have finally cracked the mystery behind a strange class of repeating cosmic signals that has baffled scientists for years. Using Australia’s ASKAP radio telescope, researchers traced ...

Hubble Captures M88 on a Perilous Journey That Could Change It Forever

June 1, 2026 A stunning spiral galaxy called Messier 88 is racing through the crowded Virgo Cluster on a journey that will dramatically reshape its future. At its heart lies a supermassive black hole about 100 ...

NASA’s Roman Telescope Could Reveal 100,000 Hidden Worlds

June 1, 2026 NASA’s Roman Space Telescope could revolutionize the search for alien worlds by discovering around 100,000 exoplanets—far more than all previous missions combined. It will look deep into ...

Scientists Discover a Giant “planet Factory” Beyond Jupiter

May 26, 2026 Scientists believe a dust-filled ring just outside Jupiter acted like a cosmic “planetesimal factory,” producing multiple generations of early space rocks with very different compositions. The ...

NASA’s Webb Telescope Discovers a Planet Where Rock Clouds Vanish Every Night

May 27, 2026 A giant planet nearly 700 light-years away has a bizarre daily weather cycle where mineral clouds appear every morning and vanish by nightfall. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers ...

NASA’s Fermi Telescope Reveals the Power Source Behind Monster Supernovae

May 27, 2026 NASA’s Fermi telescope has detected what may be the first confirmed gamma-ray signal from a superluminous supernova — one of the most extreme explosions in the universe. Scientists believe the ...

James Webb Discovers a Rare Giant Planet With Surprisingly Earth-Like Temperatures

May 21, 2026 Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered a rare world unlike anything in our solar system — a giant planet about the size of Saturn with surprisingly Earth-like ...

NASA Stunned as Strange Solar Radio Burst Lasts 19 Days

May 23, 2026 NASA scientists were stunned when a strange radio signal from the Sun refused to fade away. Instead of lasting a few hours or days like normal solar radio bursts, this one persisted for an ...

Earth Is Flying Through Ancient Supernova Debris and Scientists Found the Evidence in Antarctic Ice

May 13, 2026 Earth is quietly collecting radioactive debris from an ancient stellar explosion as our Solar System drifts through a giant cloud of gas and dust between the stars. Scientists analyzing Antarctic ice ...

A Strange Ripple in Spacetime Could Be the First Fingerprint of Dark Matter

May 19, 2026 Black holes crashing together may be revealing clues about dark matter hidden across the universe. Physicists created a new model predicting how dark matter could subtly distort gravitational waves ...

Scientists Discover Hidden Chemical Signature That Could Reveal Alien Life

May 12, 2026 Scientists may have found a powerful new way to hunt for alien life — not by searching for specific molecules, but by looking for hidden patterns in how those molecules are organized. Researchers ...

Scientists Say Dante’s Inferno Described an Asteroid Impact 500 Years Before Modern Science

May 11, 2026 Dante’s Inferno may have been far more than a religious epic. New research argues that the 14th-century poet essentially imagined a catastrophic asteroid impact centuries before modern science ...

The Universe’s Biggest Black Holes May Be Forged in Violent Mergers

May 8, 2026 The Universe’s biggest black holes may not be born giants after all. Scientists analyzing gravitational-wave signals from dozens of black hole collisions found evidence that the heaviest black ...

This Strange Planet Pair Shouldn’t Exist, but It Does

May 7, 2026 A bizarre planetary pairing 190 light-years away is challenging everything astronomers thought they knew about how worlds form. A “lonely” hot Jupiter — typically found without nearby ...

Webb Space Telescope Finds a Giant Galaxy That Doesn’t Spin

May 7, 2026 Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have spotted something that shouldn’t exist—at least not so early in the universe. A massive galaxy, formed less than 2 billion years after the ...

This Tiny Outer Solar System World Has an Atmosphere. It Shouldn’t

May 5, 2026 Astronomers have spotted something surprising in the far outer Solar System—a faint, short-lived atmosphere clinging to a tiny icy world that shouldn’t be able to hold one at all. The object, ...

Webb Space Telescope Reveals a Scorching “super-Earth” That Looks Like Mercury

May 5, 2026 A scorching, airless world just 48 light-years away is offering scientists a rare glimpse into the geology of distant planets. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers studied LHS 3844 b—a ...

After 100 Years, Scientists Finally Uncover Hidden Rule Behind Cosmic Rays

May 14, 2026 Scientists studying mysterious ultra-powerful cosmic rays have uncovered a surprising hidden pattern that could finally help explain where these particles come from. Using the DAMPE space telescope, ...

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Contains Strange Water Never Seen in Our Solar System

May 8, 2026 A mysterious comet from beyond our solar system is giving astronomers a rare glimpse into alien worlds — and it may have formed in a place far colder and stranger than anything around our Sun. The ...

Scientists Stunned as JWST Finds Ice Clouds on a Giant Alien Planet

Apr. 22, 2026 Scientists have discovered unexpected water-ice clouds on a distant, Jupiter-like exoplanet, challenging current atmospheric models. By directly imaging Epsilon Indi Ab with the James Webb Space ...